Enough interest was displayed at a recent event to promote diversity and celebrate the Hispanic population of Buffalo Grove High School that organizers of Orgullo Bison, or Bison Pride, are considering staging other events in the future.
A larger than usual crowd attended a Sept. 30 soccer game and enjoyed ethnic music and a taco truck, said Miguel Parra Garcia, a Spanish teacher.
“The goal is to promote diversity here at Buffalo Grove High School,” Garcia said. “We have a large Hispanic population but it wasn’t only for the Hispanic kids. We had kids from all of our classrooms come.”
Robert Lindgren, division head of social science, world languages and English language learners, said 21.3 percent of students are Hispanic, compared with 8 percent in 2002.
The spirit event was planned as a way to bring the community together, Garcia said, with Lindgren adding that it also was a way to recognize contributions of Hispanic students.
“All of our students continue to achieve at unprecedented levels,” he said.
It wasn’t coincidental that a soccer game was chosen as the location, Garcia said.
“Typically, football gets all of the attention and we wanted to do something a little different and get other people in the community involved,” Garcia said “It was great to see them exposed to a different type of music and food.”
Garcia said staff members involved in the event will meet to consider other ways to promote Hispanic pride. “Hopefully, there’s great things to come in the future,” he said.
To Lindgren, it was a great start: “It was our first effort at this. For the first time around, we thought it was a really big success and we are looking forward to planning and building on it moving forward. It was an event to celebrate their diversity and the things we all have in common as Bisons.”